Re: Hatch wants Gates back

["Eric M. Bennett" <ericb@pobox.com>]

Declan wrote:

>Yes, yes. Something can be unlawful without being a crime. Like I said,
>who's charging Microsoft with a crime? Fantasies don't count.

As I said before, that depends entirely on your definition of crime.  My
dictionary says:

crime, n.  1. An act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding
or commanding it and for which punishment is imposed upon conviction.  2.
Unlawful activity.  3. A serious offense, esp. one in violation of
morality.  4.  An unjust, senseless, or disgraceful act or condition.

Note that the legal definition you're probably referring to doesn't even
show up in my dictionary.  It does show up under "criminal":

criminal, adj.  1. Of, involving, or having the nature of crime.  2.
Pertaining to the administration of penal law as distinguished from civil
law.  3.  Guilty of crime.  4. Shameful; disgraceful.



So who is right?  Unless you're going to argue with a panel of
lexicographers, Microsoft has definitely been accused of a crime as that
word is definined in common use.  The dictionary is the American Heritage
Dictionary, second college edition.



--
Eric Bennett (http://www.pobox.com/~ericb/), Cornell Biochemistry Department

[If you are Bill Gates and you] want to control video? Just add it to
Windows. Want to control Java? Just add it to Windows. Want to control the
Internet? Just add it to Windows. Everyone has to buy Windows.
-Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO